Relations hit new low as the Vatican recalls envoy in Irish child abuse row

Published on Monday 25 July 2011 17:22

Relations between the Vatican and Ireland plunged to a new low yesterday following the country's recent sex abuse scandal, after the Papal Nuncio was dramatically recalled to Rome.

Monsignor Giuseppe Leanza was summoned back so he could explain to Pope Benedict XVI and senior Church officials details of Ireland's damning Cloyne Report, which accused the Vatican of covering up for paedophile priests.

The 13 July report said that the Irish diocese of Cloyne failed to act on complaints against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009. It further alleged that the Vatican encouraged bishops to ignore child-protection guidelines, including the requirement that abuse claims be reported to civil authorities.

Prime minister Enda Kenny denounced last week what he called "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism - and the narcissism - that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."

Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini yesterday acknowledged that recalling the Papal ambassador was an extraordinary step.

"The recall of the Nuncio, being a measure verily adopted by the Holy See, denotes the seriousness of the situation and the Holy See's desire to face it objectively and determinedly," he said.

In a clear reference to Mr Kenny's comments, Father Benedettini added: "Nor does it exclude some degree of surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions."

Irish foreign minister Eamon Gilmore had already summoned papal ambassador Leanza and demanded an official response from the Vatican. The Vatican has said that it will issue one at the "opportune time", but has not done so yet.

It was the first time in the past 17 years of paedophile-priest scandals in Ireland that parliamentarians have taken on the Vatican, rather than local Church leaders. Revelations of widespread abuse have eroded Catholic authority in a nation where the Church still owns most schools and several hospitals, and state broadcasters still toll a twice-daily call to Catholic prayer. Mr Kenny's reaction has so far received cross-party support in the Republic.

The decision to recall Monsignor Leanza was taken by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone after he had been informed of the attack by Mr Kenny during his holiday in the Alps.

A Vatican source said: "His Eminence, although on his summer break, had asked to be kept informed of developments in Ireland and he - like other senior Curia figures - was surprised at the attack by the Irish prime minister."

Mr Kenny also said last week that Catholic canon law had "neither legitimacy nor (a] place in the affairs of this country".

He pledged to press ahead with new laws making it a crime to withhold evidence of child abuse - even if the information was attained during a priest's confession. The Catholic Church insists that the contents of confessions must never be revealed.In comments released just hours before the diplomatic recall was announced, Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, of the Vatican's Apostolic Penitentiary, had given an interview dismissing suggestions that priests should break the secrets of the confessional box and reveal details of abusing clergy.

In an interview with the Libero newspaper, Archbishop Girotti said: "Ireland can approve all the laws it wants, but it should know the Church will never allow itself the obligation to betray the confessional to civil authorities.

"It is absurd and unthinkable to think that priests should be obliged to betray what is said in the confessional box - betraying the secrets of the confessional is punishable by excommunication."